Thousands killed as quake rocks Afghanistan

March 27 2002

Thousands of people were feared killed and around 10,000 made homeless when a severe earthquake wiped out a rural town in northern Afghanistan, UN and Afghan officials said yesterday.

The first shockwave measuring up to 6.0 on the Richter scale struck around 7.30pm local time last night (0200 AEDT Tuesday), destroying the town of Nahrin in Baghlan province, some 175km north of Kabul, they said.

A major rescue effort involving European troops with the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) based in Kabul was being planned, but Afghan officials said help was needed urgently.

Estimates of the death toll ranged from 1,200 to reports of 4,800 from the office of interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai.

Minister for Water and Natural Resources Haji Mangal Hussain told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press that more than 1,800 people had been killed in and around Nahrin, and the toll could rise.");document.write("

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"The earthquake caused devastation in the eastern parts of Baghlan province, particularly in Nahrin district," Hussain said, referring to the impoverished farming community of mostly mud-brick homes.

"According to initial reports the earthquake left more than 1,800 people dead."
Afghan defence ministry spokesman Mira Jan said 600 bodies had already been recovered from Nahrin after the second devastating earthquake to have hit the impoverished northern provinces of Afghanistan this month.

"Around 4,000 houses have been destroyed and 10,000 people have been displaced and made homeless. Most shops and houses in Nahrin were destroyed and most people have fled for the hills," he said.

Jan said devastating shockwaves continued to hit the area this morning and the Afghan interim authority was struggling to get help to the victims.

"There are still shocks going on every two hours or so. So far we have not managed to get any help or relief to the area," he said.
"We urgently need tents, medical teams and medicine, food and clothes for the victims. The government doesn't have anything available to give to them - you know that."

The quake was centred in the Hindu Kush mountains around 120km north of the Afghan capital Kabul, according to seismological officials in neighbouring Pakistan.

Severe aftershocks measuring between 4.0 and 5.2 on the Richter scale were continuing this morning, they said.

Troops from the British-led international security force in Kabul had been asked to help with rescue efforts, said UN spokeswomen Rebecca Richards.

French relief agency ACTED had dispatched 500 tents and 1,000 blankets and the UN was sending other aid, she said, adding: "People are quite scared of going back to their houses."

ACTED chief of mission Sebastien Prives told AFP at least 1,200 people had died and 1,500 had been injured.

"All the town has been destroyed," he said.

The area is often cut off by road from Kabul due to snow drifts at the dangerous Salang Tunnel through the Hindu Kush, so ISAF's helicopters would be vital to emergency rescue and relief efforts.

"At the moment we are on standby waiting for further information with readiness to send some rescue teams up to the area to see more ways we might be able to help," ISAF spokesman Colonel Neal Peckham said.

"The interim administration approached both ISAF and the United Nations to look at the problems. There do seem to be some very serious results from the earthquake up in the northeast of the country," he told reporters.

Pakistan seismological department official Alamdar Hussain said the quake was felt as far away as the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

"We have recorded a series of aftershocks with intensity ranging between 4.0 and 5.2 on the Richter scale," he said.

A strong earthquake measuring 6.7 on the Richter scale hit Afghanistan and northern Pakistan on March 3, killing at least 70 people in Samangan province northwest of Baghlan and burying dozens of homes in landslides.

Two major earthquakes in February and May 1998 left some 9,000 people dead in remote north-eastern Afghanistan.